Resistances Band Exercises for Aerialists
This one is a game changer! This resistance band sequence is essential for aerialists as a part of their shoulder warm-up. It is intended to strengthen the shoulder stabilizers, mainly the serratus anterior which stabilizes and moves the shoulder blade along the ribs. At first, this sequence will make your muscles ache. Eventually it will be easier and your shoulders will be stronger. Pay attention to the details. Better yet, come train with me in person at one of my Aerial Intensives and/or Circus Residency Programs here at Casa Chango Mexico.
This is one of my favourite resistance band shoulder warm-ups for aerialists. You will need a Thera band that has a pretty good amount of resistance but not too much! The goal for this exercise is that you feel a little aching or tiring of your muscles around your shoulder blades, but not fatigue. The main point of this exercise is to work the serratus anterior, the muscle that moves the shoulder blade along the back and the side of the rib cage.
We want to be focusing on keeping nice wide shoulders. First, just make your shoulders nice and wide, as if somebody’s pulling to the outside of your shoulders. Think about a wide collarbone and a wide shoulders in the back. Try feeling the difference between wide shoulders and squeezing the shoulder blades together in the back.
There are three positions we’re going to be working with in this relatively short sequence. We will explore the whole range of motion and the resistance band is going to help us out.
- Position 1: Bring your arms out straight forward parallel to the ground, and then wrap the shoulder blade around the ribs pulling the shoulder blades away from each other. This is known as protraction! Then pull the shoulder blades towards each other, this is known as retraction! ( squeezing them towards each other).
- Position 2: When using the Thera band in superhero pose, we position it behind our body holding it out in a T. The bands tension will naturally pull our shoulder blades towards each other in retraction, because the band is doing it for us. We’re not squeezing them ourselves! We’re actually slightly resisting squeeze when the band is behind us. The main focus when we’re in superhero position (arms out in a T) is when our arms are out to the side our shoulders are pressed down. As we are pressing out to the sides, imagine being evenly wide in the front collarbone and the shoulder blades. We’re NOT squeezing Forwards or backwards.
- Position 3: The last position we will be in is with the band behind our back and arms straight out in front of us in “Zombie arms” where we will be pushing the shoulder blades away from each other and wrapping them around the ribs.
Now let’s move through this sequence!
- Ground down through your feet and engage your core muscles so you are strong though your body. Now take your hands out in front of you in zombie arms with your shoulders down away from your head, and see if you can already find that position of being wide in the front collarbone and wide in the back between your shoulder blades. From this position we’re just going to start pulling out our arms into superhero position, and then back to our zombie arms. When your arms come forward try to keep those shoulders nice and wide. Don’t just let your arms fly forward! Really resist it and control the movement slowly. Move back and forth between these two positions 10 to 20 times. -Listen to your body! You might start feeling more tired depending on the strength of your tension band and how close or far your grip on the band is. Don’t worry if it feels challenging, over time you will build up more strength if you do these exercises regularly.
- Now bring your arms up and over to the back. You should feel a nice stretch in the pectorals, your soldier blades will naturally be drawn together from the tension band. From this “Titanic shape” move your arms to superhero position focusing on spreading your shoulder blades away from each other. Try not to roll forward here, we are reaching straight out to the sides staying wide in the front collarbone. As you move back to the titanic shape, engage your muscles and resist the pull back. Move through these two positions 10 to 20 times.
- Keeping the band behind us let’s bring our arms straight out in front into our “zombie” arms. Here we will just move through the shoulders pushing them forward and back around the ribs. Try to keep your shoulders down away from your ears. Move through this 10 – 20 times
- Now that you’ve engaged your shoulders and stabilizers you can take some free movement with the band. Do some around the world or open front to back. And shake it out a bit
- Lastly, let’s connect all the exercises and move through the full range of motion. Start in your titanic shape and move slowly through the superhero all the way to zombie arms. The whole time focusing on your shoulder blades staying wide! and scap wrapping your shoulder blades around your ribs. Move though this 5-10 times.
